Liberation
by The Cabbage man's legacy
Summary: When Naruto hears of a conspirasy group that is working underground, he can't help but finding himself wanting to be involved but as he gets deeper and deeper into the core of the rebels work he begins to wonder if freedom is worth the pain and suffering.
1. Squiggly lines, the symbol of our pride

_Ninja wars, they are essentially the same as any 'normal' war and just like any normal war winning can often come down to luck, sometimes making everyone's effort obsolete. Something simple, like even the way a certain event is perceived can change everything._

_Take for example Konaha, a village which was attacked during one of the great ninja wars, by the Kyuubi; the most powerful of the nine demons. Its attack left the village left it completely devastated. They lost many of their men as well as their leader; the renowned fourth Hokage. It could be said that it was around that time that the village was most vulnerable but for some strange reason none of its neighbouring villages attacked._

_For most ordinary villagers it was seen as a stroke of luck but it was in fact the result of the third Hokage taking up his old position and ordering that messengers be sent around the land to spread rumours of how well the city was doing and how formidable it must be to be able to fend off a monster like the Kyuubi, these false rumours scared the other villages and gave Konaha a chance to recuperate and become the strongest villages the world has ever known._

_But what if the third Hokage's messengers had been caught and exposed, what if the other nations had realised just what Konaha really was, not fierce and powerful, what if they had found out that it was; weak. _

The 15 year old looked up at his older friend, irritated that yet again he was not allowed to go to the meeting.

"Why won't you ever let me in there Iruka?" he asked his companion, frustrated that he was being left out.

"Look Naruto, if you got caught up in the sort of things we talk about you could get in big trouble" he said before using a transformation jutsu that made him look like an old man "You wait for me here and I'll see you later" Naruto watched as the 'old' man left, almost considering the idea of following him, stopping himself when he remembered what had happened when he'd tried before; his sensei had tricked him with a shadow clone and he had ended up following it blindly for hours.

Bored; he looked around at the dusty streets, the walls covered in graffiti. It was his habit to always study these walls when ever he was told to wait while Iruka went to his meetings. There were all sorts of surprising things you could learn if you just looked at your surroundings.

Unfortunately the themes were very repetitive, his favourite message ,which he saw quite often around this part of town, was 'the fourth Hokage will save us' it was funny because everyone knew that the fourth was long dead. The one in front of him was painted in huge red lettering on the wall across from him but what surprised him a little was that underneath another person had added with orange paint: 'with his son' now that bit of information did intrigue him to some extent since he'd never seen it before.

He'd never heard that the fourth had a son however, so he instantly dismissed the chance of there being any truth within it. Nothing much else was on the wall thanks to the huge writing, the only other things he could see were the usual threats aimed at the sound who governed the village. Besides the clearly stupid things that covered the wall there was another favourite of his that appeared quite often, several squiggly lines that joined together to form the shape of a leaf.

It was to him, as well as many others of the town's inhabitants, a symbol of what little was left of the leaf's pride, something which had been taken away from them when the village had been taken over by the sound village all those years ago.

He wondered what it would have been like back then, being able to go on missions and being allowed to get proper training. He'd learnt a little from Iruka and another man he knew called Kakashi, he'd even been involved in several 'missions' as Iruka liked to call them, he'd done a few things which he guessed were related to the meetings Iruka went to, so he could at least say he also had some combat experience.

But what he was doing was against the law, wasn't it? Since it had been decreed that the people who had once been part of or were descendants of Konaha were 2nd class citizens and could not be trusted with missions or even the knowledge of nin-jutsu.

It was hard for him to even think of going to an ordinary school when he knew that if the sound had never arrived he'd have been able to spend all his time training and going on missions for his country. Of course he had a little hope that things might change one day as he saw the meetings Iruka always went to as his only life line. What ever they were doing, he wanted to be involved, he didn't want to become one of those people who just wrote empty threats on the walls...

"Hey Naruto, what so interesting about that wall that as you staring at it so intently?" asked Iruka as he sat beside Naruto "Is it that you enjoy looking at you own handy work?" he joked, unable to stop himself from laughing at the youngsters frown.

"Seriously Sensei, you know I don't do that anymore" said Naruto, though he was grinning too.

"What do you do in your spare time then?" Iruka asked "Besides you know, the vandalism and following my every step"

"Training I guess and going around looking at walls" he added, smiling softly "though I guess there isn't much point in me training?" he asked, used to being told that he would never be able to use his skills in real life.

"Well there is always school Naruto…though I guess you wouldn't know much about that... I'm worried you know, you'll never get a job as a Shinobi which means its important to focus on your studies" his tone had turned serious now, he would always look out for Naruto but once he was fully grown the boy would probably be too stubborn to accept his help.

"I went in for an hour last week!" he protested laughing, not noticing Iruka put a hand against his face.

"Why can't you just try and be normal Naruto?" his teacher asked with a sigh.

"Well I am normal aren't I, just another one of those rough Konaha kids who can't be bothered co-exist, or what ever they call it and how can I go to a boring constrained school when I know how much fun it could have been?" he asked honestly, by never being allowed to become a ninja he'd always felt he'd lost something; so he always trained even though he knew it was pointless, to try and compensate for that.

"Come on now Naruto, you're now on the border line of being traitorous, if the ninja were here right now you'd get arrested"

"I guess" he said, suddenly picking himself off the pavement and brushing himself off "but that would probably be interesting at least"

"I think what your really looking for is trouble, Naruto" said Iruka as he stood up as well "And if you get into that sort of trouble I won't be able to help you out"

"Maybe you're right, maybe I'm still just some kid who still wants to play some spiteful pranks on all the people who bother me but don't you think that because of this recklessness I could be useful?" he asked, surprising Iruka by stating his views so openly.

"No, I think that sort of person is liable to make some mistakes" he said, now laughing again at Naruto's enthusiasm "Because mabye the prankster will bite off more than he can chew"

"But how will you know if he never gets a chance to show you his tricks?" he asked, this time almost desperately, seeming to be agitated that he wasn't being taken seriously.

"Because even a dog can can do a couple of tricks" he said, still laughing as he waved goodbye "I'll see you later, I have something to talk about with Kakashi""

"While you're there tell him I managed to finally finish the new Futon: rasengan and please blame him for that big hole in the sound houses garden down our street" he added, before quickly running off in the opposite direction. Iruka wondered what the rasengan was that Naruto talked about, quickly coming to the conclusion that it must be another cheap trick taught to him by Kakashi.

A short while later he came across a gray haired man with his coat done up to his eyes, who seemed to be reading an orange book. Iruka looked away with disgust as he saw the man chortle over the books content.

"Hey Kakashi about Naruto, couldn't you introduce him to some of your other students?" the man looked up from his book.

"No" he said, offering no explanation.

"Why not?" Iruka asked as always finding Kakashi eccentricities anything but endearing.

"Mainly because he'd probably show off it front of her and get jealous of the other one" he stated, seeming to feel he had to be as vague as humanely possible.

"Look Naruto needs some friends, maybe if you get them to meet one another he'll be more encouraged to fit in with normal society"

"And what" said Kakashi as he put his book back onto the bench "Would you say if I were against that?" Iruka couldn't help but look at Kakashi in irritation.

"What do you mean by that? You're obviously not the patriotic type; I think I've only ever seen you attend the meeting once or twice in my entire time there!"

"Just because I see those meetings as a waste of time does not mean that I don't care" he said gently.

"Really Kakashi, when have you ever risked yourself since all of this began?"

"Well one thing I never did was lose my pride like all of you did"

"Pride means nothing now Kakashi, I don't want you to lead Naruto down the wrong path"

"And I suppose forcing him to attend school and live by these social restraints is okay? You're too complacent Iruka, why don't you let him go to those silly little meetings of yours? I'm sure it would make him happy" ignoring this Iruka went on to ask Kakashi a question.

"Then tell me, what is the source of your pride?"

"Your questions are getting more and more easy Iruka, look I'll show you" he pulled down his coat from his face, revealing a mask which covered his face, then Iruka saw something glint in the area around Kakashi neck, it was a metal plate tied around his neck with a piece of material, the metal had several squiggly lines upon it that joined together to make the shape of a leaf.

"Well" he siad as as he pulled up his coat again "Its just a keep sake really, nothing special, I'm sure if you wanted one you could find one Iruka" he said, though he was now clearly toying with the other man "I'll see you later Iruka" the man then disappeared in a puff of smoke.

Iruka could only stare for a few moments as he realised what he'd seen, true commitment because you see there was another law too, anyone seen wearing a leaf headband was seen as a traitor and sure to suffer the ultimate price.

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Idealistic Naruto is fun, I'd like to think that I managed to stop him from being completely Oc but... Well I think I made him too smart :]

Anyway please review and tell me about how great or sucky it was :]

I edited some stuff so hopefully I made the chapter a little better ^^


	2. The meeting seemed quite short!

Kakashi looked up from his book as he sat on the usual bench; it seemed the kid had come with perfect timing.

"Hey Kakashi, I managed to improve that jutsu I learnt from that pervert" said the teenager who'd approached him.

"That's great Naruto" the man said, obviously uninterested "I'm glad you've finally learnt how to be dependant on others praise"

"Come on Kakashi, give me a little credit! I've been working on this for ages!" he said as he sat down next to him on the bench "Anyway its not like there's anyone else I can talk to…"  
"Why don't you just be a good boy and go to school, that way I won't have you bothering me all the time" Naruto sighed.

"You sound just like Iruka, and you know I have tried going a couple of times but none of the kids over there seem to like me, there parents must of told them it would be bad for them if they hung out with a truant!" he said, laughing it off as he tried to hide a grimace; it was hard for him to admit that he was lonely "Well its their loss"

Kakashi studied Naruto as he failed at hiding his feelings of isolation, Kakashi, being a real ninja, could see through others emotions easily and was happy that Naruto had come to such a logical conclusion. The poor kid had no idea as to why they were really avoiding; after all there was a reason for why he'd stopped going to school in the first place.

"Hey Naruto" he started, suddenly feeling an odd case of compassion for his occasional student "What would you say if I offered you a deal?"

"What kind of deal?" he asked, a little suspicious of his Sensei and quite rightly too, considering the amount of times Kakashi had fooled him into getting in trouble.

"How about I take you to one of those meetings you're always going on about?" he asked, feeling quite pleased with himself as he did.

Naruto would meet new people and his thirst for…Even just thinking of such a term made him feeling a little embarrassed as it seemed so unrealistic; his thirst for freedom as Naruto called it would be temporarily quenched. If he recalled correctly the expression was killing two birds with one stone, an action he felt he'd executed perfectly with this question which he knew Naruto would be unable to refuse.

"What do you want in return?" Naruto asked, trying in vain to hide his excitement at the possibility of going to the meeting but restraining himself because of what Kakashi might have in store for him.

"You'll find out later but for now I just want you out of my hair"

"So when will these meetings be?" he asked, watching Kakashi as he stood up, shoving the book into one his jacket pockets.

"Co-incidentally one will be starting in about an hour, do you want to go now?"

"Yes" he agreed almost instantaneously "If we arrange it for some other time we'll never go since you'll get caught up helping an old lady or getting a cat out of a tree"

"Let's leave the snipes for later shall we? You never know when I might change my mind"  
"Sorry Sensei but can we get moving now?" Naruto asked seeming to ignore his teacher's last statement "I'll do whatever you want okay but for now can you just lead the way?"

It wasn't much later that the two of them arrived outside a shabby one story building, the sound of men talking could be heard from outside. From what he had seen o far this was definitely not what he had expected.

"You better not just be messing with me again Kakashi"

"I'm not; look I'll even go in there and introduce you but after that you mustn't say anything"

"And why is that exactly?" he asked shrewdly, unsure as to whether Kakashi was making a fool of him.

"You're not 16 yet and everyone in there, despite being jobless bums, is extremely pretentious, they don't believe that the younger generation has a right to have a say in anything" said Kakashi, wondering if the kid would catch on.

Naruto didn't, which was most probably because he didn't believe his teacher as he'd always felt Kakashi had an astonishingly bad habit of bending the truth to his own liking.

They both then entered the building; the room they entered was small and cramped, meaning that there were quite a few people just sitting on the floor. To Naruto they didn't look like they were doing anything secretive as they just chatted to one another as they stunk the place up with the smell of cigarette smoke and beer. He was seriously beginning to doubt that he'd been taken to the right place.

"It's through this door" said Kakashi, pleased with the look of disgust on Naruto's face, he could have taken the boy through the back but he felt this way better suited his purposes.

Going through the pointed out door Naruto found himself in a sparsely decorated room that only had a couple of tables, pushed together in the middle of the room, and chairs for furniture.

"Oh hello Kakashi" greeted a man with long white hair who was already sitting down "I haven't seen you around here for ages, I hope you'll introduce me to that young friend of yours" he said laughing, though for some strange reason he did not sound friendly.

"This is Naruto" said Kakashi, rudely pointing at Naruto, the man seemed slightly off set by Kakashi's actions but told them both to take a seat. Kakashi sat down quickly and began reading his book; much to Naruto's disapproval. He sat next to Kakashi since there was no one else around that he knew.

For about half an hour Naruto waited impatiently for others to arrive and fill up the table, he'd been told that the meeting would start a six and had been slowly counting down thanks to a clock on the wall. He gradually grew more and more bored as time passed, not being able to talk with Kakashi who sat next to him he was unable to converse with any of the people as they were all uninterested in talking to him.

It was only in the last couple of minutes that he saw the first girl arrive, a beautiful girl who couldn't have been much younger than himself, though he doubted that she would have any interest in him.

Besides she was interesting to look at and he passed the remaining time by studying her somewhat perversely, her eyes were green and she had long pink hair which was a bit strange, though did add to the her sexiness considering how well it suited her. The way her face fitted together was astounding, there was only one thing she was really lacking in, though he only really noticed when he glanced at her chest but otherwise she was perfect.

Or at least he'd have to admit she was the prettiest girl he'd ever seen; well pretty as a word its self was a bit weak for the description. After examining this girl he quickly went onto the blonde who was sitting next to her and though she wasn't quite as pretty as he pink haired counter part, she did make up for it in the area that the other had failed.

"Excuse me everyone!" he suddenly heard the loud call coming from the man they'd spoken to earlier.

"Shall we begin?" this Naruto suddenly felt was what he was waiting for, now finally he had a chance to become a part of something meaningful.

It was then that the discussion began, ideas being quickly passed backwards and forwards between anyone over 16, all Naruto could do was sit back and relax.

"The last mission went well so why don't we try for a similar strategy?"

"We don't want to risk ourselves though; they might be more prepared this time!"

"How about we send in some people to gather information" the sound of this voice made Naruto look up as he realised it had come from Iruka. It seemed he hadn't noticed Naruto as he was too busy taking part in the discussion.

For a while Naruto tried to pay attention as he really felt like what they were talking about was interesting but it was hard to keep focused when he himself felt uninvolved. After a while his concentration eventually slipped making him unable to keep track of their quickly paced conversation. Every once in a while he would recognise the sound of Iruka's voice, though he otherwise paid little attention.

But he was sort of glad that he couldn't keep up with the rapid flow of conversation, feeling that it must mean that the group were active and serious about what they were doing, he was sure that in a few months when his own birthday arrived he'd enjoy it more if were able to take part in as an active speaker.

Finally after a promise for everyone to meet in the same place again the next week, though at a later time, the meeting ended and people began to leave their seat to talk to one another casually.

Naruto watched as Kakashi closed his book and got up from his seat, he was about to follow suit but Kakashi stopped him.

"That girl over there looks like she wants to thrash a pervert" he said, before leaving Naruto alone. Naruto turned around in his seat to see the pink haired girl in front of him and he panicked for a moment, wondering if what he'd said was true.

"Hey I'm Sakura" she said politely, holding out one of her hands in greeting.

"Hello my names Naruto" he said, standing up, grabbing her hand and shaking it roughly. Being too formal in an attempt to try and hide what he'd been doing early, though it was futile since she'd already noticed.

"It's good to meet you Naruto" she laughed as she saw how awkward he was being "Why don't we go outside and talk, it's a bit too loud in here" he agreed and they both stepped out a back door into the light.

"Damn it" he muttered as the sun burned his eyes, he hadn't noticed how dark it had been in there.

"Yeah it is pretty dark it there" said Sakura smiling "Though its August now so it will soon be getting darker, summers almost over" she said, this time with a hint of sadness.

"So why'd you come over and talk to me Sakura-chan?"

"Sakura-chan?" she asked, raising an eyebrow "That's a bit old fashioned isn't it?"

"I just wanted to try it out, it's meant to mean cute isn't it? I thought it suited you" he laughed, while inwardly he cursed himself for being so awkward.

"Well I don't mind if you call me that I guess" she said, though she seemed a little perturbed "but anyway I guess I came over because of my friend Ino, well I noticed you starring at her so I thought you might like it if I introduced the two of you, though I would have said hello anyway since its rare to see others our age bothering to show up"

"Oh you mean the girl sitting next to you?" he asked glad that she hadn't miss understood.

"Yeah she was the one with the big breasts" she said, smiling as Naruto's face turned red "But you know I thought you looked bored out of your mind during that meeting, I was thinking that you probably won't be bothered to go to the next-"

"Of course I'll be there" Naruto interrupted "It's hard to keep focused but I'll definitely be going again!"

"Why? So you can see Ino?" she teased.

"Not really, I just want to be involved, help people get out of this mess" he said fiercely, his passion for the subject clearly showing.

"What mess?" Sakura asked, a secret grin turning up the corners of her mouth.

"Everything, I want equality, I want the same opportunities for training as any sound kid does, I want to know that when I break my leg a real medic will look after me and not just an idiot with a couple of band aids, I want…" Naruto turned away from her looking a little embarrassed, he knew that everything he'd mentioned were just incredibly unreachable goals, it seemed almost impossible.

"But Naruto what's the point, why would you want to change anything, I'm sure most people in the same situation just deal with the problem and have become used to it, why bother to go to the trouble when most people are already satisfied? You can't miss what you've never had right?" she asked, waiting with anticipation for his answer, surely this kid wouldn't disappoint her.

"That shouldn't be enough though, why should we be satisfied when we know we could be and should be in a better of position?"

Sakura almost screamed out in delight but stopped herself; Naruto was hot blooded as well. So far he seemed like he could be useful. Now she just had one question left, after this, if he answered correctly, he will have passed the first test.

"But you're happy now aren't you? What's the point if you're already content?" she asked smiling sweetly.

"I'm _not _happy, how the hell can I be when I know about all this?" he asked, now almost seeming to be asking for an argument as he passionately defended his conviction.

"Well I guess I never thought about it like that" said Sakura twiddling her thumbs as she acted dumb, using the technique that she'd learned from her friend Hinata "Anyway Naruto, I have to go now: it was nice meeting you!" she said, waving as she gave him another one of her cute smiles.

"Goodbye Sakura-chan" said Naruto, somewhat deflated by her strange behaviour.

"I'll see you next week, kay?" she said smiling before quickly walking away.

As Naruto himself walked home he couldn't help but wonder at Sakura's strange behaviour, maybe it was just him but he could've sworn that it was more than just ignorance that had made Sakura ask those questions. There was definitely more to her, he was sure, behind the cute girl with the silly smile.

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**My longest chapter ever and I did it all in one go… just shows how much I can do if I make an effort :] What you say its not long! Well it's long for me okay! Anyway I like this story a lot so I'll be going along with it just for the fun ^^ Because I did all thisin one go there are probably going to be a couple mistakes though :[ If you see them please point them out in a review!**

**Please review if you can :]**


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